Junior Culture Minister Vittorio Sgarbi is also a renowned art critic, historian and TV personality. Image: GETTY IMAGES
Italian cultural minister probed.
A junior culture minister from Italy has been charged with having and displaying a pilfered 17th-century picture, a charge he refutes.
Vittorio Sgarbi, a well-known art critic, is the target of the most recent accusations made against an Italian government official.
After displaying the picture at a 2021 show, Mr. Sgarbi has been placed under investigation for the possible laundering of stolen goods.
In 2013, “The Capture of Saint Peter” was said to have been taken.
Once on exhibit in a castle in Piedmont, northern Italy, is this picture by Rutilio Manetti, a disciple of the Baroque master Caravaggio.
In addition, Mr. Sgarbi—a well-known TV personality with a history of profanity and slander convictions—is charged with tampering with the artwork by adding a candle to the upper corner, purportedly to hide the original source.
The politician claims that when renovating a villa that his mother had purchased more than 20 years prior, he came across the art.
According to him, the painting that was taken in 2013 was a copy, not the original.
The claims first came to light during an investigation by the Italian TV station Rai’s “Report” series.
Journalists were informed by the castle’s owner, who reported the artwork as stolen, that the canvas was removed from the frame in 2013.
She added that Mr. Sgarbi’s buddy had previously visited the home and shown interest in purchasing the artwork.
The report also revealed that a different political friend had subsequently given a damaged painting of “The Capture of Saint Peter” to a restorer.
It was alleged to have a hole in it that matched the shape of a section of canvas that had been removed from the Piedmont castle frame in 2013.
The picture has a candle added to the upper corner by the time Mr. Sgarbi displayed the restored piece in 2021.
The composite image used by Report to illustrate the differences between what it says is the original work, on the left , and the copy, on the right. Image: REPORT/RAI
The junior minister is currently being investigated in connection with another piece of art: a €5 million (£4.3 million) picture that was taken by Montecarlo police and claimed to be by the French artist Valentin de Boulogne. A prosecutor is looking into Mr. Sgarbi’s illegal exportation of the picture.
He claims that it is a copy and that he did not own it. Mr. Sgarbi has been contacted by the BBC, but no response has been received.
The Five Star Movement said it would file a motion in parliament calling for Mr. Sgarbi’s firing, joining other opposition parties in calling for his resignation.
This is the second embarrassing incident for the Italian government this year, following the probe of a governing party MP who was found to have brought a firearm to a New Year’s Eve party that went wrong and injured a partygoer.
While Emanuele Pozzolo denied firing the firearm, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has since suspended him.
Opinion polls continue to favour Ms. Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, and her right-wing alliance appears to be solid for the time being.
However, all parties will be looking to take advantage of any opening or weakness in the run-up to the European elections in June.
She has already shown signs of strain in public with Matteo Salvini, her coalition partner.